Computer Braille
             and
     the Future of Braille

  If braille is to remain a useful 
tool it must remain under the 
control of braille users.  This can 
only be accomplished if the keepers 
of braille codes consider the 
current practices of its harbingers 
of the future: those who access 
electronic information with 
refreshable braille display (RBD) 
systems.  MEMS (Micro-Electro-
Mechanical System) technology will 
reduce the price of braille displays 
by a factor of ten in only a few 
years and all braille readers in 
developed countries will have the 
option of RBDs in no more than a 
decade.  Small portable braille 
displays will be as ubiquitous as 
cell phones are now.
  RBD users move at will between 
braille and print.  They write 
braille and print with equal ease 
via braille and standard keyboards; 
they read transcribed braille and 
literal print with equal ease on 
their braille displays.  One of my 
blind friends finds it most 
convenient to use his standard 
keyboard to compose emails to me in 
print while proofing them in 
contracted braille.
  The key to facility with both 
braille and print is the one-to-one 
transliteration commonly referred to 
as either computer braille or Grade 
0 braille.  Of course, since the 
Basic Latin character set used to 
transmit electronic information is 
comprised of 94 characters, six-dot 
braille is not always sufficient for 
computer braille; 31 extra cells with 
an added dot seven are used when 
necessary to distinguish small from 
capital letters or to represent all 
the special characters uniquely. 
  Users of the Nemeth code have an 
advantage in switching to computer 
braille because of the considerable 
overlap between the Nemeth code and 
the standard computer braille 
tables.  Users of maths codes which, 
like the proposed UEBC, employ upper 
numbers or multi-cell symbols for 
standard characters like plus and 
minus have no choice but to define a 
computer braille table which 
represents these symbols differently 
from their maths code.
  Facility with both braille and 
print promotes general independence 
and  better employment 
opportunities. 
  As for jobs, it hardly seems 
necessary to point out the great 
number of jobs--from secretary to 
computer programmer--that require 
the ability to read and write 
printed characters directly.
  As for independence, not so long 
ago, all braille users were 
dependent on sighted humans to 
provide access to print.   Now--for 
those with access to electronic 
information--reading machines (OCR), 
screenreaders, transcribing 
software, online embossers and 
braille displays have replaced this 
earlier direct dependence with an 
indirect dependence on software and 
hardware developers.  
  Although there isn't much the 
average person can do about hardware 
problems, the ability to directly 
read  markup languages, if not 
programming languages, considerably 
reduces dependence on the developers 
of screenreaders and of transcribing 
software.  This is significant 
because the relatively small market 
for these applications negatively 
impacts both quality and 
availability.
  The key, of course, is the 
conceptual similiarity of print 
markup languages to braille codes.  
Although  these languages are not as 
concise as official braille codes 
and were not, of course, designed to 
produce aesthetically pleasing 
sequences of braille cells, they do 
nevertheless function as braille 
codes in being complete, linear, and 
plain text representations of 
formatted print materials including 
those with non-ASCII characters.  
  I will close with two illustrative 
examples.
  Just the other day a blind friend 
told me that he'd been temporarily 
stymied in his attempt to read some 
important information on the 
Internet when his screenreader 
balked.  Luckily, he was able to 
read the HTML source directly on his 
braille display.  In fact, he not 
only read what he needed, he 
discovered why the screenreader had 
stopped and reported the problem to 
the developers.   (The problem was 
the screenreader's failure to ignore 
an unexpected extraneous linefeed.)
  Computer braille allows braille 
users to read and write mathematics 
in LATeX source. Many braille users 
have learned LATeX and use it to 
communicate with sighted teachers 
and peers.  Unfortunately, although 
LATeX was designed to be fairly easy 
to write, it is a typesetting markup 
language and the source was not 
designed for convenience of direct
reading. It is, however, preferable
to nothing.